In 2010 when Tom was the Artistic Director of MSFT (when it was a production company) a play crossed his desk that really caught his attention, it was The Death of Norman Tortilla by Charlotte Coates. A play with a really unique voice and three wonderful characters. Tom selected the play to be part of that year's DysPla Festival (a new writing festival for dyslexic writers) and that is how we met as he cast me as Tandie in the play.

The whole of experience of being involved in the DysPla festival and working on Charlotte's play was wonderful to me as I had only been out of drama school a year and here I was working on a fantastic new play with a great director and fab fellow actors; the lovely Robert Gill & Nicholas Ruben.

We all became very passionate about the play and especially Charlotte's writing so we set about producing the play as Sheer Drop and in 2012 we had a four week run at the Tristan Bates Theatre as a double bill - The Death of Norman Tortilla and the brilliant A Lady of Substance by the wonderful Jon Cooper.

For the Tristan Bates Production we were luckily able to get the same actors back. Robert Gill who played Norman is currently playing Herb Farmer in The Bodyguard and Nicholas Ruben who played Jarek is going great guns with his writing (under the name of Jon Barton) after being involved in the 24Hour Plays at the Old Vic in 2012.

As individuals and as a company we have remained very close to Charlotte and Tom has been doing a lot of dramaturgy on the plays that she is developing. Last year we staged a rehearsed reading of her play Warehousing at the New Diorama. The relationship that Charlotte and Tom have as director/dramaturg & writer is a fantastic one - reminiscent of Lynsey Turner & Laura Wade or Katie Mitchell & Lucy Kirkwood - they just get each other.

We are therefore very proud that Charlotte is having her play Bilanka Cosmos staged at Theatre503 as part of their Is It Getting Cold in Here...? Russia Season later this month (June).

Is It Getting Cold In Here..?

A week-long show featuring 8 new short plays by UK and Russian writers which includes both established and emerging writers: Steve Waters, Ailis Ni Riain, Dominic Cavendish, Stuart Slade, Charlotte Coates, Chris Bush, and 2 eminent Russian writers. All the writers have responded to a particular aspect of life in Russia. What is happening in Russia at the moment is complex and constantly shifting, and this project is the first major dramatic response to recent events. All the pieces have been specially written for the event. Dates 24th – 28th June 7.45pm